Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

We applaud Republicans and Democrats in Ohio's General Assembly for setting aside partisan politics to change the broken system of how state House and Senate districts are created.

Superficially, Republicans may have benefited from the current system — which has resulted in a super-majority for them in both chambers — but voters and democracy have lost.

Still, amid the back-patting, we must note that the General Assembly only addressed half the problem. After U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said he didn't see an issue with the current redistricting system, state lawmakers backed off efforts to also change how congressional districts are drawn. ...

(D)espite Ohio's status as a presidential swing state, redistricting has created a U.S. House map in which not a single one of Ohio's 16 seats was competitive in the November election.

Progressives and conservatives alike are rushing to support the plan overwhelmingly passed by the General Assembly — a plan that still must be approved by voters next November.

The plan would give the responsibility for drawing state House and Senate lines to a seven-member commission made up of the governor, secretary of state, auditor and four legislative appointees.

We're glad lawmakers addressed half of this important issue, but we're feeling bold enough to ask them to finish the job next year.

— The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bill that could help save lives must return next year

Ohio's well-publicized heroin and opiate problems have not gone away, and may get worse before they get better. Yet, much has been done to try to break the cycle.

About half of 13 separate bills that were introduced to address some aspect of the epidemic have moved forward.

Unfortunately, the one bill that could have done more than many to reduce the number of overdose deaths never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee. That's a shame.

The bill encourages calling 911 to seek medical assistance for yourself or someone experiencing an overdose by providing criminal immunity for both the person in need and the person who sought help. The immunity provided is generally limited to low-level drug crimes, and does not provide protection from more serious offenses such as manufacturing, trafficking, or distribution of controlled substances.

The bill's sponsor, House Rep. Robert Sprague, R-Findlay, said ... he will reintroduce it next year with revised language that would better differentiate between those who are addicts and those who are dealing the drugs that can kill. .

Separating addicts from traffickers is never going to be easy and is best left to investigators, but prosecutions should never be more important than saving a life.